Details
VESALIUS, Andrea (1514-1564). De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. Basel: Joannes Oporinum, August 1555.
2° (433 x 280mm). Woodcut dedicatory frontipiece showing Vesalius lecturing from the dissection table, portrait of Vesalius, about 200 woodcut text illustrations, 23 full-page, two folding, last leaf with printer's device on verso, historiated initials. (Frontispiece slightly soiled and with marginal stain slightly affecting one corner of the image, some light browning and spotting, some small marginal dampstaining not affecting text, Ee5 with a few marginal wormholes and small repair not affecting text). Old vellum, spine with gilt lettering, light red edges (corners lightly rubbed, some light soiling).
Vesalius's prodigal rise to prominence in the medical world of the 16th-century as professor of Medicine at the age of 23 at Padua, then the most famous of all European medical schools, was justified by the publication of this work. The first edition was published in 1543, when Vesalius was 29, but it is this edition, the second folio edition, which became the most celebrated work on medicine that was produced in the 16th-century. For this edition new and larger initals were used, a larger type was employed, and the woodcut images were sharpened up. Such was the quality of this work, not only as a specimen of 16th-century typography and book production, but also for its profound contibution to anatomy, that its importance has been likened to Harvey's contribution to physiology in De moto cordi. Vesalius stressed the impoartance of dissection and observation for a proper understanding of anatomy, the use of memorable terminology, and a systematic approach to the subject matter. The work is divided into seven 'books', and in what was then a revolutionary idea he started with the skeleton, then dicussed the muscles, follwed by the vascular system, the nervous sytem, the abdominal organs, the organs of the thorax, and finally, the brain. The full-page plates of the so-called 'muscle men' are celebrated for their clarity, accuracy, and as seminal works in pedagogy. Garston-Morton, 377, Horblit 98 (1543 edition); Dibner 122; PMM 71; Choulant pp. 181ff.
2° (433 x 280mm). Woodcut dedicatory frontipiece showing Vesalius lecturing from the dissection table, portrait of Vesalius, about 200 woodcut text illustrations, 23 full-page, two folding, last leaf with printer's device on verso, historiated initials. (Frontispiece slightly soiled and with marginal stain slightly affecting one corner of the image, some light browning and spotting, some small marginal dampstaining not affecting text, Ee5 with a few marginal wormholes and small repair not affecting text). Old vellum, spine with gilt lettering, light red edges (corners lightly rubbed, some light soiling).
Vesalius's prodigal rise to prominence in the medical world of the 16th-century as professor of Medicine at the age of 23 at Padua, then the most famous of all European medical schools, was justified by the publication of this work. The first edition was published in 1543, when Vesalius was 29, but it is this edition, the second folio edition, which became the most celebrated work on medicine that was produced in the 16th-century. For this edition new and larger initals were used, a larger type was employed, and the woodcut images were sharpened up. Such was the quality of this work, not only as a specimen of 16th-century typography and book production, but also for its profound contibution to anatomy, that its importance has been likened to Harvey's contribution to physiology in De moto cordi. Vesalius stressed the impoartance of dissection and observation for a proper understanding of anatomy, the use of memorable terminology, and a systematic approach to the subject matter. The work is divided into seven 'books', and in what was then a revolutionary idea he started with the skeleton, then dicussed the muscles, follwed by the vascular system, the nervous sytem, the abdominal organs, the organs of the thorax, and finally, the brain. The full-page plates of the so-called 'muscle men' are celebrated for their clarity, accuracy, and as seminal works in pedagogy. Garston-Morton, 377, Horblit 98 (1543 edition); Dibner 122; PMM 71; Choulant pp. 181ff.